LONDON (Reuters) - British Airways parent IAG (ICAG.L) sees significant competition issues with a deal for Lufthansa (LHAG.DE) to buy large parts of Air Berlin (AB1.DE), its chief executive said on Friday.

A Lufthansa airliner taxis next to the Air Berlin aircraft at Tegel airport in Berlin, Germany, October 12, 2017. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke

“We did make a bid for Air Berlin, but our view was that Lufthansa was always going to get it,” IAG CEO Willie Walsh said on the sidelines of the CAPA global summit in London.

“We will watch carefully because we think there are significant competition issues,” he said, also saying it was unclear to him what was happening with easyJet (EZJ.L), which is also in talks for Air Berlin assets, but has not yet agreed a deal.